Importantly, a major threshold has only recently been canceled; data costs have fallen by a factor of four in the past year. This solves the connection problems that have plagued India in the past. Since then, consumer demand for mobile content has soared. Accelerated economic growth began to be reflected in the key monetization indicators for individual games. The average revenue per user of Android devices (which accounted for 94% of all smart phones in India) doubled in two years, greatly boosting each paid mobile game. Annual Player Expenditure. The time to enter India now depends on a number of factors, from long-term brand building strategies, genre and business models to connection requirements, the equipment specifications needed to run the game, and the required profit metrics.
Newzoo’s consumer insights on India are based on the online population of the following cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune, Lucknow, Patna.
India and its mobile first culture
Our global tablet and smartphone tracker shows that in 2016, smart phone users in India surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s second largest market. Since then, the number of smartphones used has continued to exceed global adoption. It was only in 2017. Seventy-four million smartphones were used, accounting for about a quarter (24%) of all new smartphones.
Data from Newzoo consumer insights confirms that India is a mobile-first country, and mobile gaming is a very popular pastime. In 2017, mobile gamers reached 222 million, and 89% of Indian game revenue came from mobile games. Players are highly engaged; they play games almost every third of the week, more than five days per week, and nearly 40% of gamers spend more than six hours per week playing mobile games. Indian consumers’ participation in mobile devices is not limited to Games. Overall, more than 50% of consumers prefer to use mobile devices instead of other media for daily activities such as reading, listening to music, watching videos, social networking and shopping. They have a high interest in mobile services and mobile media content. For Western consumers. For example, 54% of Indian consumers shop on their mobile devices, compared to 37% in the United Kingdom and 34% in the United States. In addition, 67% prefer to use mobile phones to pay for physical stores. Only 27% higher than the United States.
Mobile game revenue growth accelerated
India’s annual mobile gaming revenue is expected to grow from US$1.1 billion in 2018 to US$2.4 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of +49%. This has made India the fastest growing mobile gaming market in the world. Revenues increase. However, even under this impressive growth scenario, the average revenue per ARPPU in India by 2020 is much lower than the established market, with other emerging countries with similar market conditions. Compared to also lower.
Like India, game revenues in regions such as Southeast Asia or the Middle East are driven by mobile devices, mainly due to increased smartphone penetration and availability and affordability of mobile data. For example, if India’s mobile payers spend the same amount every year as Indonesia, then By 2020, the market may grow to 5.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Game monetization indicators finally achieved
As a whole, the absolute growth of gamers and mobile revenue means that if the rules of the game are of no economic significance to developers, then they have no reason to publish their games. Acquiring users in India is relatively cheap, per installation. Cost (CPI) prices are 12 percentage points lower than in the United States. Until recently, due to very low conversion rates and low average spending figures, daily average user revenue (ARPDAU) was similarly reduced or even worse. Over the past two years, this The key metric has doubled; this means that there is only a fivefold difference between Android and India on Android devices. Considering that the number of smartphone users has more than doubled in the same period, this increase is even more significant, ultimately leading to personal gaming. The developer's market is more attractive.
Why may it be the best time to enter the market now?
Despite the impressive potential of India's mobile market, it is noteworthy that the average smartphone level is quite basic. According to the global tablet and smartphone tracker, India's ranking in the use of high-end smart phones is very low: As of 2018 January is 7.5% (high-end smartphones are defined as smartphones with a minimum specification of 2 CPU cores, 2GB of memory, 4G connectivity, NFC, biometrics (fingerprints, facial IDs) and released after 2014 or more In contrast, this ratio is 17.5% in China and nearly 60% in South Korea. Some of India's most popular models are economical devices such as millet's red rice series, Samsung's J series or OPPO A series.
On the other hand, the prices of high-end specification equipment have rapidly declined in the past few months because Chinese smartphone brands such as Xiaomi and Vivo are seeing India as the next source of growth. As a result, the share of high-end smartphones used in India has been rising. We expect there will be more smartphones in use in the next few years. Plus, the cost of data in India will drop again to 1/4 of the current price in 2020 (Source: Analysys Mason), which is the growth of mobile games in the country. Potential paints a bright picture.
Now every user’s income and the required smartphone specifications are moving in the right direction. Indian consumers need to get more mobile game content. Last year, India’s top ten best-selling games were mainly casual games and localized card games. Both games are mainly profitable through advertising. Compared with Indonesia or Vietnam, core mobile games such as Garena's Arena of Valor (Tengxun's King Glory Localization) and NetStone's "Heaven 2: Rebirth" are being adopted. In-app purchase business model to promote conversion and user revenue. Our research confirms that mobile gamers prefer to spend directly on core games rather than leisure types. In India, Supercell's "Royal War" and other mid-core games Success shows that the demand for such games is growing. Developing (or localizing) core mobile game content for Indian consumers' preferences will help develop new mobile game scenarios and drive the average spending of each payer to other emerging markets. s level.
Compared to other Asian countries, publishing games in India may also be easier because most of the population speaks English, especially in first-tier and second-tier cities. Unlike China or Japan, there are no mainstream publishers in the region, and there is no government regulation. It is necessary to find publishing partners. With the rapid development of plans for Asian giants such as Tencent and Netgame to enter the Indian market, Western publishers are now more likely than ever to gain share in the world’s second largest mobile market.